


Sam Wilson: The Rebirth of Captain America

by cruxcantare



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Character Study, Future Fic, Gen, Interviews, Journalism, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Probably Post-Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the relationship stuff is super minimal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:00:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24015601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cruxcantare/pseuds/cruxcantare
Summary: July 2nd, 2024- An interview with Sam Wilson, the former Falcon and the Current Captain AmericaGiven his predecessor’s open disdain for his fame and Romanoff’s trademark secrecy, I tell Wilson that I’m surprised that he agreed to meet with me at all. Wilson smiles easily, a toothy smile that makes me feel silly for mentioning it.“Sometimes we gotta wait until we have something to say, you know?”
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Sam Wilson
Comments: 13
Kudos: 54





	Sam Wilson: The Rebirth of Captain America

The National Air and Space Museum has held many Captain America exhibition, particularly around this time of year, but this is the first one it has held since the death of Steve Rogers. Part of the exhibit is a mirror in which visitors can impose their face on the enhanced body of Captain Rogers, and beside this are his biometrics before and after Project Rebirth.

If the other visitors at this display realize they’re standing next to the former Falcon, they are being coy about it. Sam Wilson is entirely unbothered by those next to him, staring at the face of his partner, friend, and predecessor. He toes the line of anonymity and fame, a handsome forty year old man who you could imagine at your local bar, at your high school reunion, at your gym.

Just short of six feet tall and about 200 pounds, he certainly doesn’t cut the image of a comic book cape-and-tights superhero. Unlike Captain Rogers’ larger than life presence— which Wilson assures me was only true of Captain America and not of Steve Rogers— Wilson’s superpower seems to be just how ordinary he can be. Well, as ordinary as a man who flies on metal wings and fights with a shield can be.

“I’m used to it,” he says when I point this out. “Once I convinced Steve and Natasha to come round this pizza place I like, give me points with the owner, you know? He insists on putting a picture of the Avengers on his wall. Surprised he didn’t ask me to scooch out the shot.”

Something about the way Wilson talks immediately puts me at ease. Soon enough, I feel like I’m just having a conversation with a friend, despite the larger than life nature of his work and comrades. Given his predecessor’s open disdain for his fame and Romanoff’s trademark secrecy, I tell Wilson that I’m surprised that he agreed to meet with me at all. Wilson smiles easily, a toothy smile that makes me feel silly for mentioning it.

“Sometimes we gotta wait until we have something to say, you know?”

By this, he does not mean his promotion to Captain America, though we both know it's looming. My editor angled for a picture of Wilson with his shield, but Wilson vetoed it, eventually compromising with a photo in this exhibition. “You’re just looking to give my critics ammunition.” 

His voice wasn’t accusatory, but I know he’s correct: there are plenty who have a lot to say about who exactly is filling Captain America’s shoes, despite the fact Wilson has about as much claim to Captain Rogers’ feats as Captain Rogers himself since the destruction of Project Insight. No Avenger, living or dead, could lay claim to the kind of partnership between Rogers and Wilson.

Our conversation is a trade, promotion for his passion project in exchange for an exclusive with the new Captain America, and we both know it. We are about six miles away from the building that will become the Natasha Romanoff Memorial Center for Exploited Youth. Wilson has been working on this for the better part of a year along with fellow Avenger Clint “Hawkeye” Barton and Stark Industries CEO Virginia Potts. The cause is tied to Romanoff’s own past of dehumanization and programming at the hands of the infamous Soviet Red Room.

“I could build her a million statues and it wouldn’t feel right. She wasn’t a celebrity like Stark. Giving other children like her a second chance? I got a feeling that’s what she would have wanted.”

The exact deaths of Black Widow, Captain America, and Iron Man remain mysteries despite their level of fame. None of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes are willing to talk about the mission that returned over three billion people back to life, including my photographer and Wilson himself. Wilson remains similarly tight lipped about what exactly happened five years ago, from Stark’s disappearance to the blip itself. I ask what he remembers about being blipped, and he shakes his head.

“I blinked and my whole world changed.”

This seems true of most of his life. Motivated by the life and 1987 murder of his father, the Reverend Paul Wilson in Harlem, New York, Wilson had always wanted to find a way to help people, and like many young people, that lead him to service.The National Air and Space Museum has a regular exhibit about the specialized unit of the United States Air Force that Sam Wilson served in as a para-rescue airman. 

Despite being the most famous of those airmen, he only appears in a group photo. If I didn’t know any better, I would think the large image of a man with curly blond hair and metal wings was the Avenger. I suggest we can go see it, but Wilson shakes his head, insisting he does not want to suggest that this is in any way a recruitment effort.

“That man never served with us. That was the poster, when we were the new flavor. Who doesn’t imagine having wings, you know? Join the Armed Forces and you can fly like a bird. It’s hard to look at it now and know exactly what that image was used for.”

His disdain for the program may seem surprising, especially considering his now patriotic costume. Wilson is the last living of the para-rescue airmen who test piloted the EXO-7 Falcon, the pair of wings that provided Wilson his code name. Though providing the ability to slip in and out of places that pilots could not, the Falcon program made its airmen irresistible targets for enemy fire. After the death of his comrades, including Riley Underdahl in front of him, Wilson retired. Wilson is open about his struggles with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, both with the DC chapter of the Department of Veterans Affairs and with me.

“I’m not ashamed of my scars. When we talk, we give each other permission to have baggage. We’re kind to everyone but ourselves.”

The statement seems ironic when the conversation turns to the circumstances around Wilson’s promotion. Like with everything else around the blip, Wilson is unwilling to talk about how he came to wield Captain America’s shield. He does not provide a justification for the promotion, and he seems to know some critics will never be satisfied with what he would have to say. They claim it loyalty to Captain Rogers’ legacy, though others make it clear that it is a Black Captain America that they won’t accept.

“It’s what Steve wanted,” Wilson says wistfully, and only his far off stare keeps me from pushing further. “I spent ages learning to throw that shield. He makes it look easy, huh? Like a damn frisbee.”

Captain America feels more like a burden for Wilson to shoulder than an honor joyfully held— or stolen, if the critics are to be believed. I feel as if I disappointed my new friend, and I want to animate him the way he was when he was speaking about Steve and Natasha in the pizza shop.

It is hard to get a glimpse of the relationships between the Avengers, particularly when they only see each other in times of crisis. This is not true of Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson. Unlike most of Captain Rogers’ allies, Wilson did not meet Captain Rogers on the battlefield but during a morning run around DC. The two became fast friends. Wilson came to Rogers’ aid at the Battle of the Triskelion, and was recruited to the Avengers Initiative shortly after, fighting with the second incarnation of the team up until the 2016 introduction of the Sokovia Accords.

Wilson was famously incarcerated without trial after the battle at Leipzig/Halle that fractured the Avengers. If the world thought the Avengers were friends, the public dispute and controversial arrests over the now defunct Sokovia Accords dismantled that image, with a large majority of the Avengers disappearing from the public eye after the fight. International rumors of Wilson’s continued work with Captain Rogers and Romanoff persisted until the blip.

Yet Wilson speaks warmly about each of the Avengers, notably catching himself when he says “Nat” instead of “Natasha” or “Rhodey” instead of “Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes.” I ask if he has seen any other of the Avengers since the public tribute to Iron Man, and he has plenty of kind stories about his comrades, including Lieutenant Colonel James “War Machine” Rhodes, who stood against Wilson on the issue of the Accords. Their disagreement on this matter and Wilson’s incarceration seem to have no bearing on his feelings on Rhodes. If anything, Rhodes’ injury at Leipzig/Halle weighs on his head.

“People always think that’s the highest compliment to pay Rhodey... Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes, that is. How incredible it is that he’s still able to serve as War Machine despite his injury. That he’s a true superhero. I think the worst thing about the term superhero is that it dehumanizes someone you seek to compliment. Rhodey’s still a man outside of War Machine. If I don’t check in on guys like him, then who will?”

This philosophy informs Wilson’s approach to his life outside of Captain America, from Wilson’s continued work with Veterans Affairs to the nascent Natasha Romanoff Memorial Center. Wilson seems to have his hands full with saving the world; this is one of the rare opportunities where Wilson can talk. I ask if anyone has checked in on him, and he flashes that winning smile again.

“Well, you just did, didn’t you?”

It occurs to me that we are walking alongside images of those closest to him: Captain Rogers, Romanoff, even Underdahl. His friends, all gone. While I get a sense of who Sam Wilson is outside of Falcon or Captain America, I do not get the sense of who Sam Wilson is outside of how he serves his community, his country, and the world.

This is analogous to the situation Captain Rogers himself woke up to in 2011: suddenly alive again with everyone he cared about dead or at death’s door. If the Steve Rogers of the 21st century had hobbies, he hid them well; the same could be said of Sam Wilson post blip. Wilson, however, won’t compare his five years gone to Captain Rogers’ sixty-five in the ice.

“My mama lives not too far from here. Still makes the best cookies I’ve ever had. I’ve got a sister and brother up in New York. I’m more fortunate than most.”

I point out that while the efforts of the Avengers reunited many families, the Avengers itself would remain forever broken with the passing of its most famous members. He pauses at that.

“Steve used to come to my groups. There was something he used to say— or something Peggy Carter said, forgive me— that really stood with me. When Bucky died, Peggy told him something along the lines of ’Allow Barnes the dignity of his choice.’ I try to do the same for Nat… for Steve. Who wouldn’t trade their life for three billion?”

The specter of James Buchanan Barnes over the Avengers as an organization is hard to shake. After all, it is the Winter Soldier’s reappearance, along with the Sokovia Accords, that proved an irreconcilable difference for Earth’s greatest defenders for two years. Even though we now know that Sokovian Colonel Helmut Zemo was behind the 2016 terrorist attack on the Vienna International Centre, the Winter Soldier still has a litany of crimes to his name.

Barnes had disappeared from the public eye after the battle at Leipzig/Halle, only to resurface at the side of the new Captain America. If the world does not know what to make of a Black Captain America, they certainly don’t know what to do with Hydra’s assassin at his side. To some, it is a reminder of the old black and white Howling Commandos videos, with Wilson taking Captain Rogers’ place in the forefront and Barnes once again playing the sniper. To others, it is an insult to the memory of the late Avengers.

To Wilson, his partnership with Barnes is self-explanatory. 

“This is a man who was dehumanized for the better part of the century, and now that he can have peace, he chooses to follow me. The dignity of his choice, yeah? Hydra took it away from him. I won’t do the the same.”

Like many of the topics of this conversation, we can find a multitude of images of Barnes. Barnes looks much more like his 1940s photos today than he does like the images that played across the news in 2016, or even further back in 2014. Wilson smiles fondly at these images, and assures me that Barnes is not so different from the men and women who filter into the VA looking for help. Barnes just needs the time and resources to put himself back together after a traumatic event, and Wilson has plenty of experience with that.

“I’m lucky to be a party to his rebirth,” He admits. “I’ve fought against the Winter Soldier, and I’ve fought alongside Bucky Barnes, and this has been one of the most profound things I’ve ever gotten to witness.”

I tell Wilson his belief in Barnes is reminiscent of Captain America, and instead of his toothy grin, he smiles softly.

“Well, I am Captain America.”

**Author's Note:**

> Just experimenting with the style. If it's garbage, it's my garbage.


End file.
